LTA buys tools

Salaseini Moceiwai
Friday, August 22, 2014

MAJOR public sector investment projects (PSIP) undertaken by the LTA is projected at a cost of about $7million this year.

LTA CEO Naisa Tuinaceva said in an interview that some of the projects implemented were in the authority's information technology section, tough book installation, traffic management and vehicle inspection systems, and other operational aspects.

"Part of this improvement is to ensure the resources and devices we use for our work are good," Mr Tuinaceva said.

"Having these resources will enable us to carry out our jobs well in terms of service delivery. Lately, we have just bought one x-ray machine to help us in checking vehicles.

"We've always been limited in the way we inspect vehicles because some of them are hidden in nice paints and body works but with this machine, we will be able to see through the paint and determine the actual condition of any vehicle.

"This year, we also brought in our new traffic counters and this all cost money."

Mr Tuinaceva said the overall completion status of such projects was about 70 per cent.

"Expectations are high that we will reach 100 per cent by the end of this year. LTA earlier conducted a thorough market research, both local and overseas, for the implementation of these projects and after analysing and assessing the current investing environment, it made the decision to pursue with it.

"It's a lot of investment but it's all for improvement, quality delivery for LTA and better customer service. These are the things that we want to enable us to carry out our operations well."

Authority spokesman Iliesa Sokia said the projects were newly-established ones that were initiated last year and expected to be completed this year.

"The funds are obtained from our operating budget and part of it is given by the government as grants on a quarterly basis," Mr Sokia said.